Shundrawn Thomas is the President of a trillion-dollar global investment management business. As a strategic thinker and trusted advisor, he helps corporations, non-profits and religious organizations achieve their purpose and vision. As a masterful communicator and motivational speaker, he enlightens and inspires individuals in the areas of professional and personal development. He is widely respected by professional colleagues for his dedication to excellence and principled business approach. In 2017, Black Enterprise identified him as one of the Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America. Shundrawn is also an entrepreneur, previously founding businesses with retail and publishing interests. He is an engaged civic leader serving on the boards of several non-profit organizations. He also serves his local community as associate pastor of his Church located on Chicago’s Southside.
Shundrawn speaks and lectures nationally on subjects including vocation, leadership, strategy, investments, personal finance, values and faith. His passion for communicating led him to author four books including his recent release, Discover Joy In Work.
You can find Shundrawn on:
Or check out his work at shundrawnthomas.com.
Resources
Discover Joy in Work by Shundrawn Thomas
So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport
Episode Audio:
Chapter 1 - God Uses Your Work to Glorify Him
Studies show that the average person will spend more than 90,000 hours at work in their lifetime. It's a significant aspect of life and one that God actually designed and built into who we are as human beings. He created us to work and to be productive. What's more, he actually created work to be something we enjoy. But according to a Gallup poll, 85% of us hate our jobs. So what's the deal? Daily Growth Discipleship's fourth step in creating a lifestyle of disciple is to serve with purpose. We believe God created each person with a vocational call. It's a call to do productive work, not just for the sake of putting food on our table, but also for the sake of carrying out his command to be caretakers and stewards of the earth. When we do this well, we serve with purpose and find joy in doing what God created us to do. When we do this, our work brings glory to God. In this chapter, Shundrawn talks a bit about his own journey and how God has helped him bring glory to God in the world of finance.
Chapter 2 - You Can Find Joy in Your Work
God has gifted each us with a call to serve the world with our work. Our work is meant to give us purpose and be a source of joy. For many of us, however, our work, and more particularly our workplaces, are not. Because of the fallen sinful nature, our work is tainted. We no longer receive the satisfaction from work that God intended. But because God's kingdom brings renewal to all aspects of creation, there is hope for us even in the work we do. Joy and satisfaction are attainable when we align our hearts and motives with God’s. So in this chapter, Shundrawn talks about why he wrote the book, Discover Joy in Work, and he demonstrates how God can use us to bring redemption to our work and our workplaces by following Him in the everyday moments of our work life.
Chapter 3 - How to Find True Fulfillment in Your Work
We live in a fallen, sinful world. And we have to work with fallen, sinful people. And some days work just isn't fun or fulfilling. So if there's joy and fulfillment to be found in our work, how can we find it when our jobs continue to beat us down? In this chapter, Shundrawn walks us through a few practical steps we can take to find true fulfillment in our work, even when our jobs and the people we work with become difficult.
Chapter 4 - Are You Secure Enough to Take Vacation?
In the 1950s, Americans had a belief that a rise in technological development would lead to their lives becoming less about work and more about leisure. And although our lives have become much more comfortable as a result of technology, our lives continue to be filled with more things to do, more distractions, and more demands on our time. Instead of working less hours and playing more, we work longer hours. In fact, many American workers are afraid to take the vacation time given to them for fear they will lose control of their work environment, be passed over for promotions, or be so far behind on their tasks after they return, the prefer to simply stay at work. But this sentiment demonstrates an unbalance in the way we approach our work. And we must deal with it in order to create a healthy, work-life synergy.